I started going to the Sunderland Mayfair around 1983. Pints of snakebite to a (ahem) 18 years old mate, honest. Best evenings ever.
my one big regret, never saw led zep...had a choice of reading 79 or knebworth when zep headlined, i figured zep were such a huge band i had plenty time to catch them on a tour so chose reading...then bonham died in '80. i have this 'thing' that once a band splits or a member is replaced they are no longer the same so never bothered with page & plant either, lost interest in sabbath once ozzy left as well.
Did we not have a part synthetic pitch in the early years at the Sol? I remember something about the fibres that hook around the grass to stop it tearing up.
Similar to you. Loved Sabbath, but once Ozzy went, not interested. Dio was a great singer but Ozzy was Sabbath. That said, he was great as a solo artist, as was RJD.
Its no coincidence that the majority of their live setlist still consists of mostly Bon era songs. I never seen them at the mayfair...too young, but first seen them on the B.I.B. tour 1980. I still rate If you want blood in my top 5 albums. There's Y/T footage of the Glasgow gig it was taken from. Its great to put visuals to something I've heard as audio only for years.
Those were the days my friend, the snakebites were superb... First album was Lizzies Live and Dangerous... Cannot remember first gigs though I did see the original Iron Maiden and later Ozzy live at Sunderland Mayfair and Motorhead countless times at the City Hall
Best thing about all these improvements is that no one would do them unless promotion and progression is expected and planned for. Feels like KLD has taken the handbrake off and we can finally go forward.
Too me it's KLD saying these are the standards of a great club we are Sunderland and that's the standards we have here. Not scrimping and scraping by not putting batteries in clocks around the SOL and AOL etc.
Over 10 years earlier started out at GoGo's & City Hall,in Newcasltle ,the Cellar Club in South Shields then the Bay Hotel , you will have missed a lot of the earlier bands like Family, Free, Small Faces, Bowie, T Rex , Jethro Tull and Roxy Music who also changed line ups and apart from Bowie were never the same again..
i always said i was born about 10 years too late, would have loved to have started my 'live' experiences much sooner, so many big bands...strangely it was late teens before i finally decided live might not be so bad, then i saw my first concert and found what had been missing, lol did not catch tull till his 25th anniversary tour, still good but so much missing compared to his earlier stage work.
Tried on numerous occasions Ozzy. One or two good songs but overall I was a bit meh. Bit like Cold Chisel. Bow River and Khe Sahn are brilliant songs and Working Class Man by Barnsey is just as good but most of it leaves me a bit cold. I guess that I’ve been conditioned by British rock music.....even though the best band in the world ever are Rush and they’re Canadian.
The original Jethro Tull played The Argus Butterfly in Peterlee , with Blossom Toes and Spooky Tooth in support, that was the Tull band for me, can you imagine a line up like that in a pub venue., saw Free in the back room of a pub in Bishop Auckland, a week or so after they had made their debut at the Bay Hotel Sunderland on a Monday night in front of a few of regulars,two years later they had to close the doors early at the Mayfair, when about 5,000 + turned up, those were the days.
Its going to be interesting. Sanderson said the players met him last week and were delighted with what he said.
talked well on Saturday said he's learning loads from Baily Wright who apparently just talks everyone through the game
Also at this level and even the championship it has to be an advantage. Every other week we'll be playing on this surface that no other team will play on any other time of the season. It shouldn't effect us to much playing away from home as we'll be playing on a **** pitch every other week as well so we should be able to adapt either home or away. Hope people can get the gist of my point , it made sense in my head but when I started typing it , it sound like a load of bollocks but that's normally what happens when I open my mouth
